In the online environment advertising has taken on a substantial presence with the vast increase in the use of that medium that was fueled by the so-called Internet revolution. One example of online advertising is that an advertisement is displayed as an identifiable portion or area on the screen, for example in form of a banner or a box. The advertising content can be displayed on a screen where there is also other content.
The increase in use of computer-based devices and the increasing prevalence of advertisements in such fields have also brought some opportunities for tracking and evaluating advertisement efforts. For example, ads that are published online are sometimes created with one or more hyperlinks that the viewer can click on to get more information or to purchase the offered goods or services. Because this action by the user is performed in a controlled (e.g., a digital processor-based) environment, the user's act of clicking can be detected if so desired and the fact that the user clicked can later be used for one or more purposes, such as to measure whether the ad generates sufficient interest among the public or to determine the price that should be paid for publishing it.